- A friend of the woman who has claimed that Mario Batali groped her in 2017 testified at his sexual misconduct trial.
- Rachel Buckley said the accuser told her about the alleged groping days after it happened.
- "She told me that it was her thighs, her groin, and her breast," Buckley testified in Boston.
BOSTON — A friend of the woman who has claimed that Mario Batali groped her at a Boston bar five years ago testified in the disgraced celebrity chef's sexual misconduct trial on Tuesday that the accuser confided in her about the alleged unwanted sexual advances just days later.
Rachel Buckley took the stand in Boston Municipal Court on the second day of the trial and explained how 32-year-old Batali accuser Natali Tene told her at a local brewery that she was groped by the high-profile chef within a week of encountering him in 2017.
"She told me that it was her thighs, her groin, and her breast," Buckley, 37, testified, adding, "She mentioned that [Batali] kissed her face as well."
Tene has accused a drunken Batali of repeatedly kissing and groping her without her consent as she took selfies with Batali at the now-shuttered Towne Stove and Spirits near Boston's Eataly on March 31, 2017.
Batali, 61, pleaded not guilty in 2019 to a charge of indecent assault and battery in connection to the case.
"She explained that, so, it started with her taking secretive pictures of Mario Batali and then him noticing that she was taking pictures and insisting on taking selfies," Buckley said in similar testimony given by Tene a day earlier.
Buckley continued, "He called [Tene] over to take selfies and at first it was just selfies and then it turned into groping."
The friend said Tene only told her about the alleged incident days later and the two spent about an hour talking about it.
When asked about Tene's demeanor by the prosecution, Buckley said, "I think she was pretty uncomfortable, but uncomfortably trying to laugh it off as if it wasn't a big deal and then I think it kind of struck her as a big deal later on."
During cross-examination, Batali's defense attorney Courtney Caruso pointed to text messages between Tene and Buckley showing how the two quipped about Tene's run-in with Batali in the aftermath.
Tene texted one of the selfies she took with Batali to Buckley.
"That's seriously the best thing ever. Was he wearing crocs too?" Buckley asked Tene of Batali, according to the text messages revealed in court.
"He was really really drunk," Tene texted to which Buckley responded, "Omg fabulous."
Caruso argued that the text messages show that Tene wanted to leave the bar before she even ran into Batali, citing a text from Tene about one of her friends that read, "Ew he's annoying LOL I want to go home."
When asked by the defense attorney about whether she believed Tene had a good night out, Buckley replied, "Yes."
"I believe she was unwilling to reveal what happened over text," Buckley said.
Caruso grilled Buckley about how she encouraged Tene to submit her selfies with Batali to TMZ and pointed out how the two again joked about Tene's encounter with Batali.
"I think it takes time for people to process things that happen to them," Buckley said when questioned about why she and Tene were joking around.
Buckley, who has been interviewed by the Boston Police Department about the alleged incident, was deposed in May 2019 for a civil lawsuit filed by Tene against Batali. The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, is pending.
Caruso also questioned Buckley about how she spoke to a reporter about the alleged groping.
"Just tell her how creepy and fucked he was, lol" Tene texted Buckley before Buckley's meeting with the reporter, it was revealed in court.
Buckley testified that she spoke to the reporter because of the "fact that somebody got violated."
Batali faces up to two-and-a-half years in jail and would be forced to register as a sex offender if he is convicted in the case in which a judge — not a jury — will decide his fate.